THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE AUTHOR’S RESPONSE TO ATHEISM AS SEEN IN GRAHAM GREENE’S THE END OF THE AFFAIR

  

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE AUTHOR’S RESPONSE TO

ATHEISM AS SEEN IN GRAHAM GREENE’S

THE END OF THE AFFAIR

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

  Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

  

By

ANDIKA PRIADIPUTRA

  Student Number: 024214005

  

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

  A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis

  

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE AUTHOR’S RESPONSE TO

ATHEISM AS SEEN IN GRAHAM GREENE’S

THE END OF THE AFFAIR

  

By

ANDIKA PRIADIPUTRA

  Student Number: 024214005 Approved by

  Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani, S.S., M.Hum. July 17, 2010 Advisor Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum. July 17, 2010 Co-Advisor

  A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis

  

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE AUTHOR’S RESPONSE TO

ATHEISM AS SEEN IN GRAHAM GREENE’S

THE END OF THE AFFAIR

  

By

ANDIKA PRIADIPUTRA

  Student Number: 024214005 Defended before the Board of Examiners on July, 28, 2010 and Declared Acceptable

  

BOARD OF EXAMINERS

Name Signature

  Chairman : Dr. Francis Borgias Alip, M.Pd., M.A. ________________ Secretary : Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum. ________________ Member : Elisa Dwi Wardani, S.S., M.Hum ________________ Member : Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani, S.S., M.Hum ________________ Member : Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum ________________

  Yogyakarta, July 31, 2010 Faculty of Letters Sanata Dharma University

  Dean Dr. Isodarus Praptomo Baryadi, M.Hum

  …Life is short ...

…But not too short to live…

  …For those…

…who always pray for my graduation…

…let their prayers be granted…

  

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN

PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

  Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma : Nama : Andika Priadiputra Nomor Mahasiswa : 024214005

  Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul :

  

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE AUTHOR’S RESPONSE TO

ATHEISM AS SEEN IN GRAHAM GREENE’S

THE END OF THE AFFAIR

  beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, me- ngalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis. Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal: 20 Agustus 2010 Yang menyatakan, (Andika Priadiputra)

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  This undergraduate thesis is actually the result of other people’s energy transferred to my body and soul. It is a great bless having those people around me in my life.

  However, there are some special people who I should mention because of their big role in my process of finishing this undergraduate thesis. I am happy to express my sincere gratitude to Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani, S.S., M.Hum as my advisor who always has unlimited patience for me. And talking about patience, I would also thank to my parents, Dwi Sulistyo Apriyadi and Quirina Pinta Yudhiari, who have trusted me and given me freedom to do this thesis

  Huge thanks are also addressed to all my 2002 friends, especially Galang, Jati, Sunu, Vera, Sandra, and Nuke for the great friendship since the first time I entered this lovely faculty. Despite of the power of friendship, I realize that my soul, mind, and thought have been changed during my education in this faculty. That is why I should like to thank Elizabeth Nita who gave me more than only love relationship which made me stronger and changed me in many ways by the love, hate, pain, joy, and comfort during our relationship.

  Special thanks to Niken who has voluntarily given me a big support which helped me completing all the requirements that I need to finish my education in this university. The Bunguls (Garry, Cindy, Parjo, Kristin), thank you for the encouragement which gave me lots of energy to do this thesis. And of course I have to say great thanks to Translexi (Ginting, Muji, and Jati) and Sexen/Siesen Insadha as places to learn, work, and talk.

  I would also say my gratitude to my best friends (Ntik and Agatha Septyayu) who never stop supporting me and also my eternal brotherhood: Van Lith Sembilan; especially Adi, Irin, Blek, Herpang, Tupang, Didit, Cmoet, Puspa, Toree, Ayu, Shinta, Adesti, thank you for the distractions and supports, and I love you all, as always. 

  Andika Priadiputra

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ……………………………………………………………….... i

APPROVAL PAGE ………………………………………………………….. ii

ACCEPTANCE PAGE ……………………………………………………… iii

MOTTO PAGE ……………………………………………………………… iv

DEDICATION PAGE ……………………………………………………….. v

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH

UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS ……………………………………… vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………………….. vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………………….. ix

ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………… x

ABSTRAK …………………………………………………………………….. xi

  

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION …………………………………………...... 1

A. Background of the Study …………………………………………..... 1 B. Problem Formulation …………………………………………........... 4 C. Objectives of the Study …………………………………………....... 5 D. Definition of Terms …………………………………………............. 5

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW …………………………………. 7

A. Review of Related Studies ………………………………………….. 7 B. Review of Related Theories …………………………………………12 C. Review on the Biographical Background of Graham Greene ……… 22 D. Theoretical Framework …………………………………………...... 26

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ………………………………………… 28

A. Object of the Study …………………………………………............ 28 B. Approach of the Study …………………………………………...... 29 C. Method of the Study ………………………………………….......... 30

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS…………………………………………............... 32

A. The Characterization of the Major Characters in the Novel ……….. 33 B. The Type of Atheism Described in the Characterization

  of the Major Characters …………………………………………..... 44

  C. The Significance of Author’s Response to Atheism in the Novel …. 51

  

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION …………………………………………........ 58

BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………….. 62

  

ABSTRACT

  ANDIKA PRIADIPUTRA (2010) The Significance of Author’s Response to

  

Atheism as seen in Graham Greene’s The End of The Affair. Yogyakarta:

Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University.

  The End of the Affair contains a story of an affair between a writer,

  Maurice Bendrix and a wife of Minister Worker, Sarah Miles. The end of their affair is the beginning of another story. A story which involves God; something they do not believe the existence. Many critics mention that this novel is one of Greene’s Catholic novels since he put many religious dogmas and philosophy of belief in this novel. This study will examine more about the atheism that exists in the novel and find the significance of the author’s response to atheism.

  In this research, there are three main objectives that have to be explained based on the object of the study and relative theories which are used in the analysis. There are (1) to find the characterization of the major characters depicted in the novel, (2) to categorize the type of atheism of each of major characters, (3) to understand the responses of the author to atheism and also the significance of the responses.

  In doing the research and analysis of the study, the library research method was taken. The main resource is the novel itself, The End of The Affair, and the secondary resources are the theories and criticism books. The online resources, such as journal, critical reviews, and other criticism also become the additional resources in doing the research. There are two approaches which are used to do the analysis. The close relation of the story in the novel to philosophy of belief becomes the main reason to choose philosophical approach. To understand the significance of author’s response to atheism, biographical approach is used to know the author’s background and to link it to author’s responses to atheism in the novel.

  The atheism shown by the atheist characters can be seen after the characterization analysis. Maurice Bendrix and Henry Miles are absolute atheists but they do not have the same intellectual position of atheism, Maurice has positive atheism while Henry embraces negative atheism. Other major characters, Sarah Miles and Richard Smythe, share the same atheism as way of their life as pseudo-atheists. However, the occurrence of God in the story, which is started by Sarah who starts to talk and think about it, and following miracles that happens, affects the atheism of the major characters. Sarah Miles and Richard Smythe start to believe God and pray to Him. Maurice Bendrix is affected on the way he express his jealousy and hatred to God, whereas hating also means that he believe God’s existence. The response of the author can be retrieved from the events that happen to agitate atheism in the novel. Relating to Greene’s biography, which tells that Greene was once an atheist, his responses toward atheism can be a representation of his attempt to press his own atheism which still exists even though he had converted to Catholic a year before his marriage in 1927 another

  

ABSTRAK

  ANDIKA PRIADIPUTRA (2010) The Significance of Author’s Response to

  

Atheism as seen in Graham Greene’s The End of The Affair. Yogyakarta:

Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

  The End of The Affair menceritakan tentang sebuah perselingkuhan antara

  seorang penulis, Maurice Bendrix, dan seorang istri Pegawai Kementrian, Sarah Miles. Akhir dari perselingkuhan mereka adalah awal dari cerita lain yang melibatkan sesuatu yang mereka tidak pernah percaya keberadaanya, yaitu Tuhan.

  Banyak kritikus mengatakan bahwa novel ini merupakan salah satu dari novel- novel Katolik yang ditulis oleh Graham Greene karena dia menaruh banyak dogma agama dan filosophy kepercayaan manusia di dalam novel ini. Studi ini akan lebih mengamati paham atheisme yang ada di dalam novel dan menemukan signifikasi dari respon pengarah pada ateisme.

  Dalam penelitian ini, ada tiga sasaran utama yang harus diterangkan berdasarkan obyek studi dan teori-teori terkait yang digunakan dalam analisa, yaitu, (1) menemukan karakterisasi dari para tokoh utama yang terlukiskan di dalam novel, (2) mengkategorikan tipe ateisme dari tiap-tiap tokoh utama, (3) memahami reaksi pengarang pada ateisme dan juga signifikasi dari reaksi-reaksi tersebut.

  Dalam melakukan penelitian dan analisis dari studi ini, penulis menggunakan metode studi pustaka. Sumber utamanya adalah novel ini sendiri,

  

The End of The Affair, dan sumber kedua adalah buku-buku teori dan kritik.

  Sumber online, seperti jurnal, kritik sastra, dan kritik lainnya juga menjadi sumber tambahan dalam melakukan penelitian. Ada dua pendekatan yang digunakan untuk melakukan analisis. Dekatnya hubungan antara cerita di dalam novel dengan filosofi kepercayaan menjadi sebab utama untuk memilih pendekatan secara filosofis. Untuk memahami signifikasi dari reaksi pengarang terhadap ateisme, pendekatan biografis digunakan untuk mengetahui sejarah pengarang dan menghubungkannya dengan reaksi pengarang pada ateisme di dalam novel.\

  Ateisme yang ditunjukkan oleh tokoh ateis dapat diliat setelah analisis pelukisan watak. Maurice Bendrix dan Henry Miles, keduanya adalah absolute

  

atheist tetapi mereka tidak memiliki posisi intelektual yang sama tentang ateisme.

  Maurice menganut ateisme positif sedangkan Henry menganut ateisme negatif. Tokoh utama lainnya, Sarah Milies dan Richard Smythe, memiliki ateisme sebagai cara hidup yang sama yaitu sebagai pseudo-atheist. Bagaimanapun, kemunculan Tuhan dalam cerita, yang dimulai oleh Sarah, dan keajaiban- keajiaban yang terjadi setelahnya, mempengaruhi ateisme para tokoh utama. Sarah Miles dan Richard Smythe mulai mempercayai Tuhan dan berdoa kepada-Nya. Maurice Bendrix terpengaruh pada cara dia mengungkapkan kebencian dan kecemburuannya pada Tuhan, padahal membenci juga berarti dia percaya keberadaan Tuhan. Reaksi dari apengarang dapat didapatkan dari kejadian- kejadian yang terjadi untuk mengganggu ateisme di dalam novel. Terkait dengan menekan atesime diri dia sendiri yang masih ada walaupun dia telah masuk menjadi seorang Katolik setahun sebelum dia menikah pada tahun 1927. Selain itu, kemungkinan signifikasi lain dari novel ini yaitu bahwa Greene menulis novel ini sebagai kritik kepada teisme.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Graham Greene, in his earlier novel, The Power and The Glory, wrote

  “But at the center of his own faith there always stood the convincing mystery— that we were made in God’s image. God was the parent, but He was also the policeman, the criminal, the priest, the maniac, and the judge” (1991:101). This quotation describes how people will continually search to find the true image of God throughout their entire life. It also explains how the image of God is perceived differently depending on each person’s experiences, and sometimes, for some other people, God is perceived as a nonexistence.

  In analyzing literature, especially fiction novel, we can see that literature has an imitation of real world. By reading the story, we are taken to a real world situations, problems, feelings, and relationships. Henkle said that fiction presented men and women reacting to each other in the way that was really close to the reality. He added that this was literature’s great advantage among other disciplines (1974:4)

  In various societies of the world, most people devote themselves to a belief in God, but some others continually reject and deny any reasonable existence. This denial of a God encourages those who believe to prove the power of God in order to increase the amount of the believers and also reduce their or ask them to join to the joy of God. Those acts are conducted in many different ways, such as campaign or sermon in public, but also through art and literature.

  Atheism is a kind of the counter of the people who believe in God. The main characteristic of atheism is the absence of belief in the existence of god(s).

  The choice to the absence of belief can occur in two ways, a deliberate choice or because of an inherent inability in receiving, learning, or believing the idea of God or any religious teachings which considered as something incredible or closer to impossible (http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/mathew/intro.html). Atheists can not accept dogmas and also the idea of God, because based on what they have experienced in their life, they found that those religious ideas are merely non- factual, and they choose to find the answers of life matters in their own efforts inside their society and real life.

  Graham Greene is a famous British author who wrote continuously between 1930 and 1980. He is obsessed with the problems of good and evil. In his early novels, religion had dominated his novels with the theme about the grace of God. Greene wrote five books concerned with religious themes. They are The

  

Brighton Rock (1938), The Power and The Glory (1946), The Heart and The

Matter (1948), The End of the Affair (1951), and A Burnt Out Case (1961)

  The novel, Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair, that becomes the main object of this thesis, seems to be the media or the invitation which is also used to spread the idea of ‘God’. There are many critics and readers’ comments on the Catholic ideas which are inserted and attached inside the story of the novel. Pryce- religious novels have earned him an international reputation rare among contemporary English writers (1973:1). He also added that Greene attempts to prove the connection between sin and God’s purposes in this novel (1973:70). Greene himself also stated his own comment on how people see him as a catholic writer, “I would claim not to be a writer of Catholic novels, but a writer who in four of five books took characters with Catholic ideas for the novels” (1973:101).

  Those comments above take us to the platform of Greene’s novels, a religious theme as the human philosophical relationship to their creator. Greene, as the author, creates a world that has many philosophical thoughts about God. As Stevick declared in his book, The Theory of Novel, he declared that a novelist can represent a particular philosophical climate and has legitimating to think of sensory data and individual experience as the very substance of reality itself (1967:15). Although the novel contains the atmosphere of religious and philosophical idea, we have to realize that the author himself is always a complete human being. Liddell argued that novelist shows us human complex character in a special language. He or she portrays the life and its complex reality. He or she can do that because he or she knows well the human characters and basically novelist’s value is most likely to be the same as the value of humanist (1950: x).

  We also have to realize that human has never been perfect in their characteristic, and also, we can say, in their behavior and thoughts. Another problem, instead of the author, related to the ‘human’ thing is the readers. Scott wrote in his book, “Readers have wrong perception about theme. They often regard that theme as a some themes which deal with moral lessons, but still some other stories do not deal with moral. What is being said by an author does not always mean they are offering human good values but instead it can go wrong based on the misconception of life” (1968:9).

  The title of this novel is quite interesting; the word “affair” always becomes a temptation for people. “Affair” has been one of the most popular issues for people to talk about. However, in this novel, the affair is not the only issue. The story of this novel begins with many flashbacks from the characters, flashback about love affair between Bendrix and Sarah. The affair becomes the background or the starting point to understand the story. Each character of this novel shows different behavior and belief toward God. Basically, the story in this novel describes a world which takes God as something unimportant to believe. However, the story flows into another stage when Sarah began to pray and make promise to God for Hendrix's life at same time she decided to leave him and end their affair. God becomes something important, as a place to address questions and problems. This thesis will discuss about atheism in the novel and the significance of author’s response towards it.

B. Problem Formulation

  1. How are the major characters depicted in the novel?

  2. What kind of atheism is described in the characterization of the major characters?

  3. What is the author’s response towards atheism and its significance seen in the novel?

  C. Objectives of the Study

  In writing this thesis, there are three objectives which are going to be achieved. The first problem formulation is meant to find the characterization of the major characters, the information can be dragged from their conversation, behavior, and belief about God and then, we can find the type of atheism described those behaviors toward God. The last objective, as the final objective of this thesis, is to see the author’s responses to atheism which are described in this novel and the significance of it. Those sequential three objectives are the main focus to be achieved in writing this thesis.

  D. Definition of Terms

  To avoid misunderstanding which possibly occurs to the readers when reading this thesis, some definition of the terms used in thesis are listed below:

  1. Atheism There are some writers who wrote about atheism in Encyclopedia. Their definitions about atheism can be used as the basic understanding about atheism. Generally, the meaning of atheism is a disapproval or rejection of belief or the existence of deities (Nielsen, 2010: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/40634/atheism). Specifically, atheism is a position where there is no God(s) or deities (William, 1998: 530).

  Or in other word, atheism can be simply defined as the absence of belief that any deities exist.

  (Robinson, 2007: http://www.religioustolerance.org/atheist4.htm)

  2. Atheist “According to the most usual definition, an atheist is a person who maintains that there is no God, that is, that the sentence “God exists” expresses a false proposition. In our definition, an atheist is a person who rejects belief in God, regardless of whether or not the reason for the rejection is the claim that “God exists” expresses a false proposition” (Edward, 1967: 358).

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies Greene is considered as a great author during his time, even until these

  recent days, therefore in this work of Graham Greene, The End of The Affair, many critics and reviewers have their own perspective in interpreting the novel. In this first part of the second chapter of the thesis, some of the works related to Graham Greene’s The End of The Affair will be drawn in short description.

  H.G Earnshaw in Modern Writers (1980: 203) stated, ”Greene has written a number of unhappy novels about seedy characters, and his Catholicism is peculiar to himself. The principal characters seem to be intent of testing God's faith in man, rather than on expressing man's faith in God.” He stated his opinion about how the religious theme dominates Greene’s The End of The Affair which narrates about Greene’s peculiar Catholicism, and instead of telling a story about someone’s faith toward God, Greene wanted to test the faith itself.

  Another work that also had the similar idea with Earnshaw and discussed about the religiousness of Greene is the book titled Graham Greene which is written by Pryce-Jones. He described his opinion about The End of The Affair by using religiousness theme inside the novel then considering God as the author of the novel.

  God is the master novelist in the End of the affair. Bendrix is an unbeliever resisting God, striking his toes into the sands of human life, far wider material; until in the end it is God who has even conditioned the first person narrative by providing such a different story from the one Bendrix planned. (1973: 8) In addition, Pryce Jones also expressed that the combination of love and lust or a great sexual desire is one of Greene’s favorite symbiosis. He also mentioned that this book was used by Greene as the device to bend guilt and egoism into an externalization of happiness. The plot of The End of The Affair can always reform; it depends on an interchangeability of the moral association of love and lust. For lust is sinful abandonment of the flesh, love is virtue's abnegation of the self. But love also entails and perhaps means lusting after a woman with all the suffering that ensues. There are two kinds of love found in this story that is possessive love and divine love (1973:111).

  Paul O-prey in A Reader’s Guide to Graham Greene (1988: 89) says, “The End of the Affair is the setting for the mysterious actions of a God ‘seduces’ His sinners to believe in Him, so that, in the midst of total violence, ‘sanctity and fidelity and the courage of human beings are’ rediscovered.” He also added, "The

  

End of The Affair was the first novel in which Greene used the first

  technique...many of Bendrix’s comments on the art of the novel echo Greene's own." Further he stated his opinion about the distinction between “belief and faith” in Greene's opinion. He said that the distinction between "belief" and "faith" was an important one in Greene's work. Faith for Greene means an unquestioning acceptance of God and a trust in His love and mercy. Belief, on the other hand, is man's rationalization and institualization of God, through theology and the church.

  Before writing The End of The Affair Greene had himself experienced a crisis of belief though he had kept his faith. Greene had "excommunicated" himself: He said, “In my private life, my situation is not regular. If I went to communion, I would have to confess and make promises. I prefer to excommunicate myself. If I don't believe in X or Y, faith intervenes, telling me I'm wrong not to believe. Faith is above belief. One can say it's a gift of God, while belief is not. Belief is founded on reason. On the whole I keep my faith while enduring long periods of disbelief.” (1988: 96). Greene’s own life experience in faith and belief can be seen through the characters in his novel, The End of The Affair, their faith of God changed in the last part of the story.

  Philip Spires also wrote his review about Graham Greene’s The End of

  

The Affair , it was published at July 07, 2008, in a website called blogcritics.com;

  he ended the review with a good closure about his view about the novel and gave the readers such a suggestion or question to enjoy the flow of the story which later can be answered by the readers based on their own interpretation toward the story.

  What emerges in The End of the Affair is that this space is specific to particular relationships. Scratch the surface of a different association of that same person, and it will reveal a different territory, perhaps not even sharing recognizable landmarks with the first. Perhaps, therefore, we project onto others what we want them to be. Perhaps relationships are never really shared, and remain at best pragmatic and, more likely, ultimately selfish. In the end, The End of the Affair suggests that they are not, but it is only a suggestion. (http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/07/07/110804.php) Laura Kryhoski, a freelance writer and an English Literature teacher, considers that love as a religious experience in Greene’s work, she stated,

  “Graham Greene's The End of the Affair is an exploration of love and the social ramifications of acting upon love born of an illicit affair. Greene uses the Christ- but straining ethical social limits, has the power to destroy those most insistent on its expression. For Sarah, love is physically fatal, for Bendrix, it becomes a record

  of hate .”(http://www.answers.com/topic/the-end-of-the-affair-criticism)

  Sherry, the writer of Greene’s Biography, stated that The End of The

  

Affair is Greene’s himself autobiographical novel, as its inspiration his adulterous

  love affair with the American Catherine Walston, who was married to a wealthy farmer. This book is dedicated to her. Readers can see this sign in the beginning of the novel, it is written to “To C.” (British Edition) which is the initial name of Catherine. It even becomes more obvious in the American Edition, which is written in full her first name, “to Catherine”.

  Westbroek and Overbeeke in "High Road of English and American

  Literature " explicitly said:

  Graham Greene has been called the leading novelist of the displaced person. His characters' vulgarity, their lack of social consciousness and split personalities make us feel we are constantly moving on the borderline between "right" and "wrong" or rather between "good" and "evil". Most of the characters, either having no belief or principles at all, or, if they have, crippled by other weaknesses, are driven into a corner by some cause or other, forced to show their real natures stripped of all camouflage in their moments of utter misery and despair. The seediness in man's character and the meaningless of existence to those who are not aware of a faith is often nearer to God and may be saved by His grace (1965:112-113). They explained that the novel consists of “good” and “evil” instead of “right” or “wrong”, their opinion showed how strong the power of religious theme inside is described. Westbroek and Overbeeke also recognize the no-belief principles and the camouflage of the believers when they are in misery and despair, which somehow explains the quality of their belief and principle.

  Brindley D. in "Orthodoxy and Orthoproxis in the Novel of Graham

  

Greene " (1983:29-31) says that in The End of the Affair, Greene wanted to write

  of a man who was to be driven and overwhelmed by the accumulation of natural coincidences, until he broke down and began to accept the incredible-the possibility of a God. In The End of The Affair Greene portrays the genesis of faith, and sharply opposes the intellectual and emotional elements involved. Further, Brindley (1983:35) comments that Greene considered intellectual conviction insufficient. He also explores the possibility of faith being based not on intellectual but on practice and finds that God can be responded to as a statue, picture or sacrament, which is easily grasped and objectified, rather than as a rational concept. Sarah's love for God is an emotional response that is entirely independent of rational justification, but Bendrix is only willing to consider belief on intellectual terms. Practice and the objectifying of God is what brings Sarah to belief

  Most of Greene's characters undergo meaningless and clueless life, and do not believe in God's existence. Critics often describe his story with "seediness", which means that his stories are describing a gloomy and dark sequence in which his characters are living. He typically illustrates world in his novel as rootless, people living without God's presence, and there is always and mixed between love and hatred (Allen, 1964: 203).

  John Spurling, in “Contemporary Writer" said, The End of The Affair (1951) appears at first to be taking up the baton at this point. The affair between point. Greene is still after his "religious sense"; his grand backdrop of heaven and hell, the Catholicism is employed this time. Further, Spurling mentions that it is God who intervened, or may have intervened, to bring Bendrix back to life after Sarah has found him apparently dead under a fallen door after an air raid (1983:44).

  From those related studies of The End of The Affair, most of them are viewing the novel from the religious point of view of Graham Greene as the author. The value of Catholicism is so widely used in extracting the message of Graham Greene’s The End of The Affair. Many critics describe the concept of faith and belief inside the novel and accept this as one of Greene’s auto- biographical novels, since the story has many similarities with Greene’s life journey. The topic of this thesis is quite clear to show where the discussion will go. It is still about philosophy of atheism inside the novel. The only distinction of the last goal by relating Greene’s biography to the novel is the reason of doing it.

  The others simply say that atheism in the story is part of Greene's life. This thesis will discuss about it more closely and specifically, which is the response of the author to atheism in this novel and why the author has that kind of response reflecting to his life's journey.

B. Review of Related Theories

1. Theory on Character and Characterization

  Character, according to Abrams (1993: 23) in his book A Glossary of

  

Literary Terms is the person “presented in a dramatic or narrative work … emotional qualities that are expressed in what they say-the dialogue-and by what they do-the action”. While according to Holman and Harmon (1986: 81) in A

  

Handbook to Literature , a character is a complicated term including the idea of

  moral constitution of human personality, the moral uprightness, and the presence of creatures in works of art which seem to be human in one way or the other.

  From those sources, character can be defined as a complicated term presented in literary work which possesses the value of moral constitution in human’s personality and moral uprightness and it can be interpreted by the readers who also own those values as a human being.

  A character may be flat or having only a single idea or quality without much detail or round, that is having more complex characteristics as real life person. A character may also be static, experience only slight changes in the plot, or dynamic, influenced by actions and experiences and used to reveal the consequences of his or her actions (Holman and Harmon, 1986: 24).

  Characterization is the way in which the author reveals or creates the characters in his/her work, making them ‘alive’ for the reader (Holman and Harmon, 1986: 81). They states that there are three fundamental methods of characterization in fiction. First, the explicit presentation by the author and second, the character’s own presentation in action without any comment from the author, and the last one is the representation from within a character of the impact of certain events towards the character’s inner self, also without any interference from the author.

  In addition, Foster defines the distinction between flat and round characters. In his Aspect of the Novel (1978: 73), he clarifies the distinction as follows:

  a. Flat Character : A flat character presents static and never changes in the story. It is represented "as single idea or quality" (1978:73).

  b. Round Character : A round character presents dynamic and complex manner. It is difficult to categorize someone as a round character because his or her character always changes and is not easy to guess.

  Barnet, Berman, and Bruto in Literature for Composition (1988: 71-72) explained four main ways, which are significant in analyzing literary work. These are the following ways to analyze characterization.

  a. What the character says: This is direct words that come from the character's expression.

  b. What the character does: The action or deed the character might do.

  c. What does other character say about the character: It might be difficult if there is no other characters appear in the story. To lead a good description, the author has to include other characters, even a narrator, if any to give any comments, opinions, or descriptions about the character.

  d. What other characters do: Other Characters' actions, deed, or movement are also helpful to describe the characters' characterization.

2. Theories about atheism

  Theories about atheism written here are meant to explain the specific and clear definition of atheism and prevent the confusion about atheism in doing the analysis. Hopefully, by using some sources in drawing some explanation about atheism, the term “atheism” will become understandable. However, the meaning of atheism is somehow quite large, but here, we are going to use the most common definition about atheism.

  Reid, in his book The Anatomy of Atheism (1965:6-21), explains the distinctive features of atheism and the meaning of its counterparts obviously.

  There are two distinctive features of features of atheism. They are atheism as a way of life and atheism as intellectual position. The explanation of these distinctive features is respectively under different subheadings.

  a. Atheism as a Way of Life Formulating a single coherent definition of the term 'atheism' which can cover all cases adequately and equally is not easy. In this study, the primary concern is elaborating a concise but comprehensive concept of atheism. Therefore the explanation is hopefully sufficient to cover the diverse ways in which atheism may in fact be concretely realized. If an atheist persist a life in which for any great length of time God is unknown, atheism truly becomes his way of life. For some men, atheism might be as way of life for the others it is a mental attitude, an intellectual position. Thus atheism has two considerations and these considerations suggest a basis for a division of the subject. The first atheism in the lives of men. Whereas the second one is its theoretical dimension which atheist concerns about their faith. It considered more obvious, more explicit metaphysical and more theological. Moreover Reid (1965:7-14) classifies three types of atheists under this subheading that he follows from Maritain's terminology (Maritain is a contemporary Catholic philosopher). Those consider atheism as a way of life are divided into these following types: i. The Practical Atheists :

  The practical atheist may refuse to be called 'atheists' because they are unaware of their atheism. They may think of themselves as believers, religious men, may even adhere to certain religious principles verbally, or be counted as member of some denomination. From day to day existence, God does not exist and has no real meaning in their life. They endure daily problems, carry out their business and encounter the periodic crisis, to which life is exposed. All the problems they face without any reference to the living God. For them, the determinant of the specific and significant boundaries of human existence is their own interests and endeavors. They worship God with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him (Reid, 1965:.7-9) ii. The Pseudo Atheist :

  If other people worship God with all their hearts, the pseudo- atheists admit that they deny Him. They are eager to be called atheist since they do not believe in God, they unconsciously search for Him. They yearn for His presence in life and this feeling make them not realized about what they are going to do that is search the existence of God, even though it takes for years. In other words, the pseudo atheists live without a knowledge of or faith in the true God. If it is compared with the practical atheists, it can be said that: the pseudo-atheists never have enough knowledge about the true God, whereas the practical atheists ignore and refuse Him effectively out of their thought and also out of their life (Reid, 1965:9-11) iii. The Absolute Atheists :

  There is a question about such atheists, is there any absolute atheists in this world? The answer is these ones are not a mere possibility.

  Perhaps recently the followers of absolute atheists are larger that any other kinds of atheists. The absolute atheists are larger than any other kinds of atheists. The absolute or radical atheists live consciously and consistently without God. They exclude Him from their life. The believers place God as the authentic object of human reason and divine faith, but for the absolute atheists, their denial of God is about positive affirmation of himself. They focus and concentrate humanity in themselves. The ultimate and solitary concern is their own persons.

  The distinction between the practical atheists and absolute atheists is: the practical atheists think of God is vague and without emotional think of God only for excluding Him from their life. They may think about Him more often than the practical atheists do. More over the thought of Him make their firmness to throw Him out of their life and deepen their attachment to those values, which have yielded the place of God in their affections and strivings.

  For the absolute atheists, it is better to live with their own way rather than live as practical ones do. The practical atheists who confess as a believer live hypocritically as they believe that there is God, but incompatible with their action, which they have chosen. It is not amazing if the absolute atheists may grow out of or derive strength from the unreflective disregard of the practical atheists. (Reid, 1965:11-14) b. Atheism as an Intellectual Position